The Advantages of Home Schooling

If you have not yet made up your mind if home schooling is the way you will educate your child, read these advantages carefully and compare them to what formal schools can offer.

The true, objective list of the advantages of home schooling:

A Wonderfully Stimulating Environment &
Your home school has the potential to be a wonderfully stimulating environment. You have the freedom to choose the books, the art materials, the educational toys &all the resources your child needs according to her ability level, natural talents and interests.

Interaction with Adults
A vitally important part of this environment is daily, meaningful, interaction with adults (at least one) which is essential for the social development of the child.

Please don t underestimate the value in this. In schools and in society in general nowadays, children get relatively little, if any, real and meaningful contact with adults and, as you might have noticed, show little respect for or ability to communicate with their elders.

Your child s individual needs can be met
You can see where your child excels and where he experiences difficulty. You can then adjust his learning experiences accordingly.

So, if he s excellent at math you can get more advanced math courses for him &if, at the same time, he s finding english grammar a little difficult you can use a less demanding course. And you can decide to do math all day if you like, or just do 15 minutes today and maybe a little longer tomorrow!

This is one of the great advantages of home schooling that teachers in a formal school don't have the time and resources for.

Self-Directed Learning
Studies of home schooling almost invariably show that it is a much more informal process of education than formal schooling. Many parents start out with their own little school at home  &they have a rigid timetable each day with a half hour for this subject, an hour for that subject and so on. This usually changes to a much more informal approach where, more and more, the talents and natural abilities of the child determine what is done.

This allows the child to really own their learning. These children become extremely highly self-motivated. This is why studies regularly show that home schooled children are more advanced learners than their formally schooled peers &they love learning because they re learning about what they love!

This may be the most important of all the advantages of home schooling.

Security
The most important thing for a young child is to feel secure. And one of the advantages of home schooling is that there s nowhere more secure than at home.

It s safe, warm, familiar and is in the control of those who the child trusts most in the whole world!

One to One help  whenever it s needed
It s a simple fact that children learn best when they have access to one to one help from an adult &whenever it s needed. This isn t possible in a formal school but, of course, is the nature of a home school.

Real Life  Learning
The best way to learn about something is to learn about it in real life . Schools, by their very nature, are disconnected from the real world . Home schools can be disconnected too but they have the potential to use the real world to learn about everything &children can learn about number and math when doing the shopping &about practical work by helping to build a shed &

Learning is what we do around here!
Where is learning done? It s done at school, isn t it? &oh, and at home when doing homework. How much better it would be for a child to think of learning and schoolwork  as just another thing we do around here . In other words, home schools can make learning a part of real, everyday life that can always be fun, not pressurized, and not seen as a negative, inflexible chore.

This is one of the advantages of home schooling...try as they might, teachers in a formal school can t provide for this.

Consistent Values
One of the most important advantages of home schooling is that at home the values of Mom and Dad are not challenged each day by the values of school life or of your child s friends.

This is critical because of the nature of a child. A young child s mind is very delicate. Whatever a child sees, hears, touches, tastes or smells influences her. It is essential therefore that whatever the parent holds to be true is presented to the child first...and often...and that the child is not confused by different value systems.

Privacy
Why is it that we think only adults need occasional privacy? It s important for kids too to have privacy whenever they feel the need during the day. Privacy simply can t be provided for the child in a formal school.

This is one of the great advantages of home schooling that we never seem to hear about.

Better Health
Your child isn t exposed to the illnesses of his peers day to day.

Super-Motivated Teacher
The child being educated at home will always have teachers who are super-motivated &no-one will be more motivated to provide the best for your child than you!

No Competition
Some children seem to thrive when there s a bit of competition &others are devastated by it.

One of the advantages of home schooling is that you can make sure there is no destructive competition. Yes, of course, there will always be sibling rivalry, but you can develop a home environment where individual differences are respected and where siblings work to help each other rather than compete.

Real Responsibility
By educating children we try to guide them to grow into self-reliant, responsible people. Responsible people are successful people.

For your child to grow into a responsible person she must be given ever-increasing responsibilities according to her growing capabilities. Since your home school is a real world place, her opportunities to take new responsibilities will be real. And, since children learn best &really learn &when learning in the real world  she will really learn to be responsible!

Super Self Confident Child
A child who learns in the real world, is given greater responsibilities, is self-directing his learning, is learning in a secure environment with teachers who are completely devoted to him is happy, competent and full of real, genuine self-confidence.